It's amazing how much the Internet has changed our lives. People get emails that make accusations without foundation and they are circulated around the country within seconds and suddenly become topics of conversations around water coolers or in lunchrooms. I remember being in Indianapolis covering the Indiana primary and a man came up to me and said he wasn't going to vote for Senator Obama because he was very concerned about the comments made by Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor. I said, "That's interesting. As a reporter, I'm curious what comments particularly bothered you?" He said, "Well, I can't think of any that come to mind, but I also read on the Internet that he's a Muslim." And I said, "Now wait a minute. You can't have both. You can't be offended by his Christian minister and then say he's a Muslim. You've got to pick one."
I was never a big Tim Russert fan, perhaps because I never gave myself much of an oppoortunity to be one. I've always detested Sunday morning political talk shows, if for no other reason than that they're just so much mental masturbation. Still, the picture that's being painted of Russert by his friends and colleagues leads me to believe that he might just have been someone whose company I might well have thoroughly enjoyed.
One apect of Russert that I was aware of was his acumen as a keen observer of the American body politic. Occasionally, like most pundits, Russert could drift from the sublime to the ridiculous, and, like most pundits, often tended to get caught up in questions or "issues" that really don't matter. Still, he was good at asking the questions necessary to get people to think...something which happens all too rarely in this country anymore.It's just too bad that damn few people actually bothered to watch Meet the Press. I hadn't for years, primarily because I detest the self-imporant banter of talking heads in love with little but the sound of their own voice.Russert clearly loved what he was doing; it's just too bad that he was doing it in a forum that's slowly going the way of the buffalo (no pun intended for a man who was a HUGE Buffalo Bills fan).
Any time we lose an intelligent and rational intellect we're poorer for it. Tim Russert's loss is sad, not for the loss of his political acumen, because someone will take his seat, if not his place. No, Russert's passing is sad for it's suddeness and the void it leaves in the lives of his colleagues, friends, and loved ones. Watching Matt Lauer's interview with Russert's son Luke yesteday, I found myself hoping that, when I'm finally dragged away feet first, I will have had even a fraction of the impact on the people in my life that Tim Russert did on those in his. Politics isn't what matters. Power isn't what matters. People are what matter- family. loved ones, those who fill our lives with meaning on a daily basis. If you can manage to keep your eye on that prize, you may have some hope of leaving behind a legacy something close to the one Tim Russert left. We should all be so fortunate and blessed.
